An incoming radio signal may be correlated with an expected preamble/synchronization word to determine if the incoming signal is a packet. However, while a correlator in a decoder of a radio may indicate that the signal exceeds a threshold energy value indicating a match to the expected preamble, in some cases this may be coincidental. Accordingly, false packet detection is common. Such false packet detections waste time and battery power, and such poor allocation of processor resources may result in failure to recognize actual packets.